Board of directors of Galapagos NV
Composition of Galapagos NV’s board of directors
Onno van de Stolpe – Please refer to the “Composition of Galapagos NV’s executive committee” for a biography.
Rajesh Parekh, MA, DPhil has served as the Chairman of our board of directors since 2004. Dr. Parekh is a General Partner at Advent Life Sciences LLP, which he joined in 2005. During an academic career at Oxford University, he co-founded Oxford GlycoSciences PLC, where he served as Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Executive Officer from 1988 until its sale to Celltech Group PLC (now UCB SA) in 2003. He has founded or served on the boards of several life sciences companies in the United States and Europe including Celldex Therapeutics, Inc.; Avila Therapeutics, Inc.; EUSA Pharma (Europe) Limited; Thiakis Limited; Biocartis NV; and Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (AMT) Holding N.V. (now uniQure). Dr. Parekh currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Advent Venture Partners; Advent Life Sciences LLP; Aleta Inc.; Arrakis, Inc.; Aura Inc.; Artax Inc.; Capella BioSciences Ltd.; Cellnovo Limited; Itara Ltd.; Levicept Limited; PE Limited; and Project Paradise Limited. He is also a member of the supervisory board of the Novartis Venture Fund. He received his MA in Biochemistry and DPhil in Molecular Medicine from the University of Oxford, where he has also been a Senior Research Fellow and Professor.
Harrold van Barlingen, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since 2005. Dr. Van Barlingen is the managing director and founder of Thuja Capital B.V., Thuja Capital Holding B.V. and Thuja Capital Management B.V.. Prior to founding Thuja Capital, he headed the life sciences effort of AlpInvest Partners B.V. from 2001 to 2006, managing a portfolio of over 30 companies. Previously, he was at the Boston Consulting Group, or BCG, where he worked as a consultant in management and strategy from 1999 to 2002. Prior to BCG, he headed the continental activities of The Lewin Group (a Quintiles subsidiary), an internationally active firm specialized in the field of health economics. He holds an MSc in Medical Biology and a PhD in Medicine, both from Utrecht University. From 1991 to 1992 he was a visiting scientist at the University of Chicago. He is the author of a wide variety of peer-reviewed scientific and pharmaco-economics papers. He currently serves on the supervisory boards of Encare Biotech B.V., TheraSolve NV, Indigo Diabetes NV (chairman) and Hemics B.V. (chairman). In addition, during the last five years he also served on the boards of Okapi Sciences NV, and arGEN-X N.V.
Werner Cautreels, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since 2009. Dr. Cautreels is the President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of Selecta Biosciences, Inc. Previously, Dr. Cautreels joined Solvay Pharmaceuticals SA in 1998 where he was Global Head of R&D and later Global Chief Executive Officer from 2005 onwards, until it was acquired by Abbott Laboratories Inc. in February 2010. Prior to joining Solvay he was employed by Sanofi SA, Sterling Winthrop, Inc. and Nycomed Amersham PLC in a variety of R&D management positions in Europe and in the United States from 1979 to 1998. Dr. Cautreels was a director of Innogenetics NV and ArQule, Inc. from 1999 until 2006, and of Seres Therapeutics Inc. from 2012 until 2016. He was the President of the Belgian-Luxemburg Chamber of Commerce for Russia and Belarus until June 2010. He graduated from the University of Antwerp, with a Doctorate in Chemistry, specializing in mass spectrometry. He received his management and financial education from the Harvard Business School.
Howard Rowe, JD has served as a member of our board of directors since 2010. Mr. Rowe is Managing Director at Hayfin Capital Management LLP. Prior to joining Hayfin Capital Management, he was a Managing Director with The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. where he had multiple healthcare responsibilities over his 12 years at the firm. His most recent roles at Goldman Sachs were as part of the European Special Situations and Principal Strategies teams where he established and led the private healthcare investing effort. During that time he served on the boards of EUSA Pharma (Europe) Limited, Healthcare Brands International Limited, SmallBone Innovations, Inc., MedAvante, Inc. and Ikonisys, Inc. Prior to his investing activities, Mr. Rowe was a senior member of the European Healthcare Investment Banking team, where he advised numerous corporate clients on M&A and corporate finance activities. Before joining Goldman Sachs, he was a corporate lawyer with the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Mr. Rowe received his Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology from the University of Southern California and his JD from Harvard Law School.
Katrine Bosley has served as a member of our board of directors since 2013. Ms. Bosley has served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors of Editas Medicine, Inc. since June 2014. Prior to joining Editas, she was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Broad Institute from 2013 to 2014. From 2009 to 2012, she was President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors of Avila Therapeutics, Inc., which was acquired by Celgene Corporation in 2012. She served as President, Celgene Avilomics Research at Celgene in 2012. Prior to her time at Avila Therapeutics she was Vice President, Strategic Operations at Adnexus, a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, and was Vice President, Business Development at Adnexus Therapeutics, Inc. before that. Ms. Bosley joined Adnexus Therapeutics from Biogen Idec, Inc. where she had roles in business development, commercial operations and portfolio strategy in the United States and Europe. Earlier, she was part of the healthcare team at the venture firm Highland Capital Partners, Inc. Ms. Bosley graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Biology. She currently serves as chairman of the board of Genocea Biosciences, Inc. and as a director of Scholar Rock, LLC. She also serves on the board of directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and is a review committee member of the Wellcome Trust.
Christine Mummery, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since 30 September 2015. Dr. Mummery has served as a Professor of Developmental Biology and Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) since 2008 and a Professor of Vascular Modelling at the Technical University of Twente in the Netherlands since September 2015. In 2007, she was a Radcliffe fellow at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital when human-induced pluripotent stem cells were being developed, and she was the first to derive these from patients in the Netherlands. In 2002, she became a Professor at the Utrecht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. She was a postdoctoral fellow from 1981 to 1984 at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, where she later also served as a staff scientist and group leader until 2008. Dr. Mummery obtained her B.S. in Physics, Electronics, and Mathematics at the University of Nottingham and her Ph.D. in BioPhysics at London University in the United Kingdom. Her primary research focus is currently the development and use of stem cells in cardiovascular development and disease. She served on the Ethical Councils of the Dutch Ministry of Health, is member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), editor-in-chief of the Cell Press journal Stem Cell Reports, former board member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research and past-president of the International Society of Differentiation. She was co-founder of Pluriomics B.V. In addition, she is on the board of ZonMw (Dutch Medical Research Council) and chairs the executive board of the Institute for human Organ and Disease Model Technologies (hDMT), a non-profit R&D institute of which we are a founding partner. She is a review committee member of the European Research Council, the Wellcome Trust (ad hoc) and the Heineken Jury Prize (KNAW).
Mary Kerr, Ph.D., has served as a member of our board of directors since 26 July 2016. Dr. Kerr, a UK national, is Chief Executive Officer and director at NeRRe Therapeutics. Prior to her appointment at NeRRe, Dr. Kerr held a range of senior leadership roles at GSK over more than 20 years, most recently as Senior Vice President and Global Franchise leader for the Immuno-inflammation and Infectious Diseases franchise. Dr. Kerr was a founding member and on the Corporate Executive team of ViiV Healthcare where she led a turnaround in the performance of the HIV business in Europe. She has spent the majority of her career on the R&D commercial interface in global strategy and regional operational roles, predominantly in the specialty and orphan space. Dr. Kerr gained a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Bradford, did post-doctoral research at the Michigan Cancer Foundation in Detroit and has an MBA from the University of Kingston.
About Galapagos NV’s board of directors
Galapagos NV’s board of directors consists of minimum five and maximum nine members, including the Chairman and the CEO. The Chairman is a non-executive director and does not hold the office of CEO. At least three directors are independent.
The directors are appointed by the shareholders’ meeting upon the proposal of the board, for a renewable term of up to four years. When a position on the board becomes vacant, the other directors may temporarily fill the mandate until the shareholders’ meeting appoints a new director. The nomination and remuneration committee nominates, for the approval of the board, candidates to fill vacancies and advises on proposals for appointment originating from shareholders, in each case taking into account Galapagos’ needs and the selection criteria determined by the board.
Except for Mr. Onno van de Stolpe, all board members are non-executive directors.
In 2016, the following persons were members of the board: Dr. Raj Parekh (Chairman), Mr. Onno van de Stolpe (CEO), Dr. Harrold van Barlingen, Dr. Werner Cautreels, Mr. Howard Rowe, Ms. Katrine Bosley, Dr. Christine Mummery and Dr. Mary Kerr (as from 26 July 2016); the latter five directors were appointed as independent directors within the meaning of article 526ter of the Belgian Companies Code.
The board’s role is to pursue the long-term success of Galapagos. The board does so by assuming the authority and responsibilities assigned to it by Belgian corporate law and by combining entrepreneurial leadership with appropriate risk assessment and management. Each of the directors’ expertise and experience is exemplified by the varied professional activities they carry out and offices they hold.
In 2016, the board of directors held three regular meetings, six meetings by telephone conference to discuss specific matters and two meetings in the presence of a notary (relating to the issuance of Warrant Plan 2016, Warrant Plan 2016 RMV and the issuance of shares with cancellation of the shareholders’ preferential subscription rights). The meetings in the presence of a notary were both attended Mr. Van de Stolpe and Dr. Van Barlingen via telephone conference and all other directors granted a written proxy to them in advance of the meeting.
The attendance rate for the other meetings was as follows: Dr. Parekh: 89%; Mr. Van de Stolpe: 78%; Dr. Cautreels: 89%; Dr. Van Barlingen: 100%; Mr. Rowe: 78%; Ms. Bosley: 78%; Dr. Mummery: 100% and Dr. Kerr: 100% (based on meetings held after the date of her appointment as director). The overall attendance rate was 89%. In addition, certain board members also attended a number of review meetings with scientific staff of the group.
The board of directors acts as a collegial body. We do not have a formalized process in place to evaluate the board, its committees and its individual directors; the board is of the opinion that such evaluation can occur on an ongoing and informal basis within the framework of the meetings of the board and its committees.
During 2016, Galapagos NV complied with the Law of 28 July 2011 with respect to gender diversification in the board of directors, and the board will continue to monitor future compliance.